Attention!!! Pro Sports Daily will be down on Wednesday morning from 5:00am - 7:00am eastern time for database maintenance. All Sports Direct Inc. properties will be down during this scheduled outage.
Sorry for any inconvenience that this outage may cause.

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

According to MLB.com's Tom Singer, the Pirates may be interested in converting Joel Hanrahan into a starter.
Hanrahan is in his final year of arbitration and has a projected salary of $7 million for 2013. The Pirates will continue to shop him this offseason, but could look to transition him into a starter and address their bullpen in free agency. The Dodgers recently discussed a possible deal for Hanrahan involving left-hander Chris Capuano, though a trade now appears unlikely to happen

According to MLB.com's Tom Singer, the Pirates may be interested in converting Joel Hanrahan into a starter.
Hanrahan is in his final year of arbitration and has a projected salary of $7 million for 2013. The Pirates will continue to shop him this offseason, but could look to transition him into a starter and address their bullpen in free agency. The Dodgers recently discussed a possible deal for Hanrahan involving left-hander Chris Capuano, though a trade now appears unlikely to happen

Pirates are interested in John Lannan. Some think it could take a major league deal to get him but some think a minor league deal would work. On a minor league deal he'd be a solid choice to compete for the 5th starter job.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington indicated Monday that Starling Marte and Travis Snider are locked in as starters in left and right field, respectively.
Huntington said Jose Tabata and Alex Presley are "coming in to fight (for jobs). We're going to have interesting decisions." Garrett Jones, who has split time evenly between first base and right field, is currently in line to start at first, though he could be traded.

very interesting that could mean the pirates are looking for pitching more than a hitter

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington indicated Monday that Starling Marte and Travis Snider are locked in as starters in left and right field, respectively.
Huntington said Jose Tabata and Alex Presley are "coming in to fight (for jobs). We're going to have interesting decisions." Garrett Jones, who has split time evenly between first base and right field, is currently in line to start at first, though he could be traded.

very interesting that could mean the pirates are looking for pitching more than a hitter

That is actually how it should be. The rotation is serverely lacking right now. AJ and Wandy are a decent top 2 but they are getting up there in age. McDonald is a complete wild card who might be great for us or might flop. Morton is out until June at the earliest. So that leaves the mass of Leroux, VandenHurk, Locke, McPherson, Wilson, Mazzaro, etc competeting for 2 spots. Ideally I would like to see them add a good middle of the rotation starter (either trade or FA) and sign someone like Lannan to a minor league contract to come in and compete for the #5 job.

The bullpen especially if Hanrahan is traded also needs some work. The offense on the other hand is raw but fairly steady except for a little more infield depth.

The next big event this offseason comes on Thursday as the Rule V draft occurs. The Pirates do have an opening on the 40 man roster and this class has been described as deep so I'd expect the Pirates to select someone. Just looking at how the roster in constructed I'd say it is most likely to be a pitcher but I wouldn't rule out a middle infielder.

Here is a look at a Top 20 list of eligible players as complied by Jonathan Mayo.

This isn't directly related to the Pirates but is kind of funny. Will Carroll of Sports Illustrated tweeted that Rod Barajas is a key free agent to watch. The thought process is he is the best and possibly only free agent option who could catch Dickey.

So yes amazingly somehow even Rod Barajas appears to have seen a jump in value since leaving the Pirates.

We will probably get some action tomorrow in the Rule V draft but right now unless the Pirates trade Hanrahan or Jones the only move we might see today is the signing of someome to a minor league deal.

Pirates traded Ramon Cabrera to the Tigers for Andrew Oliver. This is not much of a move but my initial reaction is why. Catching is a premium position and Cabrera while not a great prospect has put up solid numbers. Meanwhile Oliver looks like just another reliever with control issues. He is a lefty though so I guess that helps.

burgh what can you tell me about Cabrera? You seem to be in tune with your organizational depth. Oliver at one time had some high hopes but when he got his shot he missed a couple of times. Good arm but like you said lacks control. Nibbles around the outside corner a lot instead of trusting his fastball. I'm just wondering if Cabrera has a legit chance to over take our own young back up catcher Holaday. Holaday has defensive capabilities but the bat is still an issue or is Cabrera more of a bat.